23 Things – Thing 3 & Thing 4

Thing 3 – Digital Footprint

A digital footprint is what you leave of yourself online which can include profiles, pictures, comments. Because these items are online, they can be found by others. This week we have been asked to consider what our digital footprint looks like.

My current online presence

Facebook – This is very much a personal tool that I use to keep in touch with friends, family, and follow groups I have an interest in. Being digitally literate, I know all about security and privacy settings, and thus my settings are set so that only people I am friends with can see my posts or tag me. Also I only add people who I am sure that I know, meaning it is hard for anyone else to find me on Facebook. Given that I wish to keep Facebook as a personal tool, this does not need changing.

Twitter – I have two accounts for Twitter. One is personal, although it rarely gets used, and the other is professional. The professional one is relatively new, and the account does show that since there’s not a lot on there. In the future I think I should attempt to use twitter more to engage with conversations that are relevant and interesting to the profession of librarianship.

LinkedIn – I recently set this up as part of the Personal & Professional Development module for my master’s degree, so I know that it has a professional feel and is up to date.

Blogs – This is where I feel I have the biggest online presence. I keep two blogs, this one, which is a professional blog and geared towards my work in librarianship, and another which is a personal blog about my hobbies and personal interests. The personal blog has been around for a number of years, however, I only use my first name and a screen name on it, so it is hard to link to me as a person (although it is linked to my personal twitter account (they also both have the same picture and username as well, so it is easy to link the two accounts)). This professional website is linked to my professional Twitter account, and both my Twitter and LinkedIn point to this blog. I use a picture of myself for LinkedIn, but Twitter and this blog have a different picture that is an icon rather than a picture.

Google – Searching for myself on google reveals a lot of people who share my name, but none of who are me. There are numerous results for Facebook profiles, a page for LinkedIn profiles, which I am not in the Top 10 for, but would probably list me, and results for an actress in Australia, and a lecturer in America. Going onto the second and third pages does not show any links to my profiles either, so I have to conclude that my digital footprint is not prevalent enough for search engines to find.

I very much think that I have separated out my personal and professional online presence, and I plan to keep it that way since it works for me. A blended approach is not something I consider on using.

The professional side of my digital footprint is still relatively new, and something that I should improve on, although this will probably take some time and is something to build up little-by-little, rather than all at once.

Thing 4 – Digital Security

A lot of the digital security focuses on the use of Smart Phones and what permissions the apps on there have. I did go through my phone and look at the permissions that my apps have and I wasn’t too surprised by anything. The only permission I’m worried about is access to my location, which I’ve switched off for most apps – there’s now only 5 that have it and most of those are google. I do have a banking app on my phone but I log out of it when I’m done and I don’t have any of those pay with your phone apps because if my phone did get lost/stolen (which has happened before) then I think it would be very easy for them to get in and steal money. I also don’t save any of my passwords on my phone either.

The only thing I didn’t have was password protection on my phone, but I have now added a pattern lock screen as an extra layer of security. And I also went through and uninstalled a few apps that I haven’t used in a while to keep my phone clean, since it is something that is recommended, for performance as well as security.

I also think about digital security in the larger sense, of online security as well. I have a selection of passwords, and I try not to use the same password for important logins, aka, my Paypal password is different to other passwords since that deals with my money. My desktop PC does save all my passwords but that in turn is password protected and in my flat, and whilst it’s not unfeasible for it to be stolen, it’s a lot less likely than my phone being stolen. I also know when to back out of a website if it looks dodgy, and I never let anything download onto my computer without my permission, hopefully meaning that I can catch anything that tries to sneak it’s way on there.

Overall, I think I’m reasonable safe with regards to my digital security. Not perfect, but good enough that I don’t worry too much about it beyond taking reasonable precautions.

Bonus Thing A

Create an about me page. Since this blog has been running for a little while now, my About Me page has been set up for some time and can be found here.